Sir, —
The story of the pressure on the Tent of Nations Farm of the Nasser family by Israeli settlers aided by their army and police (Planting Hope Under Occupation, March 2026) is a familiar to those with an awareness of the attempts by the Israeli authorities to remove Christians and Muslims from the Occupied Palestinian territories. The exclusively Christian village of Taybeh (Ephraim in Greek) near Ramallah is under similar sustained pressure from Israeli settlers. Many people believe that the aim of this pressure is to ethnically cleanse the Occupied Palestinian Territories to make space for exclusively Israeli settlements. Our fellow Christians are rightly disappointed with the lack of support they receive from Western Christians when all they hear are promises to pray and to stand in solidarity with them. The support some Christians actually give to the activities of the Israeli government adds to their pain. We are surely called to speak out in their support and to call on our governments to end their support for Israel which calls into question their credibility when preaching to other countries about a human rights-based International order.
Yours, etc.,
The Reverend Martin O’Connor
(Dublin; by email)
